tice to the cause you so eloquently defend for Christianity itself
honestly, and openly professes to offer itself, to the belief of all
mankind solely on account of the reasons which support it; and since
its learned, and liberal advocates always announce, and recommend it
from the Pulpit as reasonable in itself and confirmed by unanswerable
arguments; no one who believes them sincere can doubt, that they are
perfectly willing to have its claims openly discussed and think
themselves amply able to give valid reasons, "for the faith that is in
them," and which they so earnestly invite all men to receive.

You observe, p. 13, that the writings of Infidels, "have been injurious
not so much by the strength of their arguments, as by the positive, and
contemptuous manner In which they speak of Revelation, they abound in
sarcasm, abuse, and sneer, and supply the place of reasoning, by wit
and satire." If so sir, it is all in favor of the cause you defend; for
the tiny weapons of wit, and ridicule, will assuredly fly to shivers
under a few blows from the solid, and massy club of sound logic. The
man who attacks any system of Religion merely with wit, and ridicule,
can never, I conceive, be a very formidable antagonist.

The mental imbecility of the man who could touch such a subject as
religion in any shape with no other arms, would render him a harmless
adversary, and the intrinsic weakness of such shining but slender
weapons, when encountered with something more solid, would eventually
render him a contemptible one, I therefore cannot help doubting, that
wit and ridicule alone, and unsupported by reasoning, and good
reasoning too, could ever have been very successfully wielded against
such a thing as the Christian Religion, by its opposers.

No man it appears to me of common understanding will ever resign his
religion on account of a few jokes, and bon mots. The adherence of such
men as are weak enough to be subverted by such trifles can do as little
honor to Christianity, as their abandoning it for such reasons, can
affect it with disgrace. The belief of such men could never have been
more than habit, and their Infidelity nothing else than a freak of
folly, which is reproachful only to themselves. But after all, this
vehement objection to wit and ridicule, appears to me a little
imprudent; for a sarcastic opponent might reply, that sceptics, have
been not unfrequently attacked with irony most severe, and sometimes
sorely